


Nutcracker That Got Cracked

by Violent_Bulldog



Series: The Four Less-Rotten Kids [1]
Category: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - All Media Types
Genre: And that's canon here, Anxiety, Gen, Harm to Children, Injury, Major Character Injury, Other, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sis got stitched back together like a teddy bear, Therapy, This is a mix of the 2005 film and the musical, Veruca Salt reflects on her life, Willy Wonka is evil, i don't know how she's actually alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22529404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violent_Bulldog/pseuds/Violent_Bulldog
Summary: Veruca Salt didn't expect that winning a Golden Ticket would change her life foreverAnd not in a good way
Relationships: Augustus Gloop & Veruca Salt, Mr. Salt & Veruca Salt, Veruca Salt & Mike Teavee, Violet Beauregarde & Augustus Gloop & Veruca Salt & Mike Teavee, Violet Beauregarde & Veruca Salt
Series: The Four Less-Rotten Kids [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620967
Comments: 3
Kudos: 36





	Nutcracker That Got Cracked

How do you look at a squirrel the same when a group of giant ones danced with you, ripped you apart and then threw you down the garbage shoot because you were a "bad nut" as Wonka said? Veruca wasn't sure if she ever could look at them the same.

She had struggled to understand what had happened at first. She remembered things in small steps.

She had gotten a golden ticket,

She had gone to the factory and met Violet, Mike, Charlie, Augustus and Wonka,

She has seen Augustus get stuck in a pipe and nearly drown and Wonka say he was going to be caramelized,

She had seen Violet eat a piece of gum and turn purple and swell up and Wonka say that she was going to need to be juiced,

She had seen the squirrels, asked her father for one, been denied by Wonka and went to try and get one herself,

She had been ragdoll danced with the giant squirrels before they tore her apart and threw her down the garbage shoot,

She had to be sewed back together, leaving scars where each limb attached and left her unable to dance permanently,

And, to top it all off, she found out that Charlie had won ownership of the chocolate factory for simply surviving the tour.

She was left with permanent damage, was in pain if she stretched too much and all because she had wanted a trained squirrel. A stupid squirrel. Why was it that squirrels were the things that gave her a reality check? She had asked her father if she could start over by getting rid of her animals and her clothes and all the ridiculous stuff she had and asked if she could have a normal life. She wanted to try and understand what a normal life could be like.

And so, she stopped wearing her expensive dresses and wore cheaper outfits that were actually much cuter. She wore skirts and flat shoes and cardigans and she actually enjoyed wearing them more than her old dresses and leotards. She didn't have the latest iPhone but she still had a good phone that let her stay in touch with the world and her friends. She had grown close to the other factory kids, apart from Charlie because he refused to make contact with the others, making a group chat with them on Instagram where they shared photos and memes and other dumb things that teenagers should be doing.

She enrolled in a public school and ended up enjoying it far more than her homeschooling. Her mother had tried her best but nothing could really beat the actual thing. She made friends, actual friends, people that she could relate to and enjoy spending time with. Of course, they all already knew about her and the chocolate factory and for the first few weeks, people were sceptical of her. Why was this bratty, rich kid suddenly enrolled in their school? But, once she told them what the factory was truly like and how it had changed her life, people grew to enjoy her presence. She had joined her school's acting club and was one of the star pupils. She had discreetly told the school about the damage that the factory had left her which allowed her to enjoy her acting without being forced to do extreme stunts or movements that would cause her pain. 

To her friends, her parents and to the world, Veruca Salt seemed like a completely different girl than the one that had entered the chocolate factory. And, to be quite literal, she practically was. She was now held together by threads. But, anyway, she was a different girl. She wasn't the spoilt brat that she had once been. But, she also wasn't the same mentally. There was never a night where she wasn't awoken by her nightmares. The memories of the factory haunted her, causing her to lose sleep. She flinched whenever she heard someone say chocolate or Wonka or squirrel or nut or anything along the lines of that. 

There was one day when she was out with her father, walking through a park and enjoying each other's company. Then, a squirrel ran from a tree and across the path they were walking on. Oleg had flinched but regained his composure a few moments later but Veruca had frozen completely. Her father saw the panic on her face, the tears glistening in her eyes and the way her entire body had tensed. He had tried to take her hand, but she moved away quickly before running into the public restroom. Oleg waited outside for her, not daring to even enter. Veruca hid herself in a cubical and sobbed. She couldn't breathe and she felt like the walls were closing around her but she was frozen on the bathroom floor, not even caring about how gross it was. An older woman had gently knocked on the door, asking if she was okay but Veruca couldn't respond. Her throat was too tight and she couldn't speak. The woman had opened the stall door as Veruca had left it unlocked in her panicked state, and crouched down next to her. It made the younger girl feel slightly better, enough for her to try and explain the situation to the other woman. 

She ranted in Russian about how she couldn't sleep, how she struggled to eat most of the time, how she couldn't hear certain words without feeling panicked and how she had just seen a squirrel and it made her go into the state she was in. The woman listened intently. Once Veruca had stopped her rant, the woman explained what a panic attack was and how that is what Veruca had just had. She further explained how it sounded like she was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and anxiety and that she needed to talk to her parents about it and possibly get therapy. Veruca had just nodded along to the talk, still struggling slightly to get her breathing back under control. The woman offered her a hand to stand up, to which she took and they left the restroom. Her father sighed when he saw her and she immediately ran into his arms. She may be a teenager but sometimes, she needed her father to treat her like the child she actually was. The woman explained what had happened to her father and told him that she should get professional help. Her father had thanked the woman and the father-daughter duo walked home hand in hand.

Veruca spent the rest of that night explaining everything to her parents. She explained her nightmares of the factory, she explained why she wanted a new start, she explained how she felt ill whenever someone mentioned the factory or the psychopathic man that had given them the tour, she explained how it hurt her to do most physical activities and how she was scared that she could rip the thread and just have a limb fall off, she explained how terrified she was when she saw a squirrel even if it was just a photo or on a TV show. Her parents listened and asked if she wanted to try talking to a therapist. She agreed, and they immediately went online and searched for a good, but decently affordable one. Veruca opened the factory kids group chat.

**_Problem Children_ **

_Verassalt:_ Guys, I'm going to therapy and I'm pretty sure that you should all do the same


End file.
